Tax and Budget

The School Code establishes a new basic education funding “formula” with a base distribution, and 12 new supplemental criteria targeted to very specific school districts based on aid ratio, enrollment or other unique factors.

“There is little to celebrate in this budget," says PBPC Director Sharon Ward. "It fails to adequately address the enormity of the funding crisis facing Pennsylvania schools. 80 percent of the cuts to classrooms are left intact, and that means higher property taxes and even larger class sizes in our schools.

As the economic value of natural gas production increases in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, the local impact fee created by Act 13 of 2012 is failing to keep pace. By 2019-20, a 4% natural gas severance tax could generate three times as much as the fee is estimated to bring in.

New revenue from the city and state is necessary to avoid the most harmful cuts to the Philadelphia School District and avert the long-term damage that will be done to the current cohort of public school students.

Local officials from across Pennsylvania came to Harrisburg today with a message for state lawmakers: prioritize investments in our schools, county health services, and infrastructure over new state tax cuts.